Day 463 Swords of Iron – “Strategy”
Chaim starts the video by saying that Israel is a very diverse place, including the geology. To emphasize this point, he is recording his video from the Ramon crater, a unique geological formation in southern Israel. Chaim says that it was a very important area going all the way back to the 1948 Independence War, when David Ben Gurion declared the Negev to be a strategically important defensive zone for the state of Israel.
In this context, Chaim quotes Isaiah 35:1-2; The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God.
Indeed, as Chaim mentions, the Negev served as a protective buffer zone for Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Chaim also notes that the mountain goats (IBEX) which inhabit this area are almost the only life form which would be able to navigate it. It acts as a gateway, and it’s also a great place for tourists, both foreigners and Israelis, to visit. Chaim says that he’s taken his own children there to do stargazing and it’s delightful for many other reasons.
Switching his gaze to northern Israel, Chaim says Israelis are shocked and dismayed to see Western countries welcoming and encouraging the new leadership in Damascus, brushing off their past ties to Sunni jihadist groups. Israel must maintain a presence in southern Syria to protect the Jewish State against the instability and chaos there.
Chaim cites his own service in the Ya’alom combat engineering corps of the IDF in Syria, where he was among the soldiers who engaged with the Radwan Force and uncovered their plans and infrastructure meant to invade the Galilee and take over Israeli cities.
